Other than a one-year hiatus – after the 1994-1995 basketball season, The Evening Sun has named its basketball all-stars en masse. In other words, if a particular player had an exceptional season within his or her league, we honored that player with a selection to our postseason hoops team.

For the first time, we undertook the process of breaking down the talent across the county, and naming a first team, a second team, and honorable mention selections – a break from our yearly tradition. The second team and honorable mention players were already announced in the Wednesday, March 24 edition, and today, we unveil who we believe are the top players in the area – regardless of their school’s size or the conference that their team plays in.

Breaking it down in simple terms: If The Evening Sun was to put together an all-star team from the basketball players we cover throughout the season, these young men and women would get the starting nod.

We do have one minor anomaly to our selection process this season. Our girls’ team actually has six players instead of five. Looking down the line for Sherburne-Earlville’s ladies, two of its players – each of whom earned co-MVP honors in their league – had virtually identical statistics up and down the line, so we have paired those two as a package deal.